SHE'S the most tireless royal globetrotter in history - but one of life's great travel experiences seems to have passed her by.

Airlines just DON'T lose the Queen's baggage and leave her waiting hopelessly by the luggage carousel.

But then she has a Travelling Yeoman - one of up to 45 staff who accompany her on her frequent trips abroad - to look after things like that. He makes sure every case is marked with yellow labels bearing the simple title The Queen.

As befits a monarch, the Queen doesn't travel light. Each time she flies, four and a half tons of luggage goes with her - and that adds up to a mind-boggling total when you think she has made 257 visits to 128 countries since her coronation in 1953.

Wherever she goes abroad - and she has notched up 1,009,475 miles on foreign trips, the equivalent of to the moon and back twice - she takes those special items that make her comfortable.

She won't leave without her feather pillows, a hotwater bottle and crates of Malvern spring water. And woe betide the staff member who forgets to pack the black box which contains her medicines for headaches and sinusitis.

The plane home will probably be even heavier, considering some of the bizarre souvenirs she is given on her travels.

Among them was a silver recreation of the Shalimar Gardens from the citizens of Lahore, beaded Yoruba thrones and cushions from Nigeria and a 4ft-high wooden elephant from Thailand.

As much as she may have wanted to, she could hardly leave behind the gilded model of a Saudi oasis with camels and palm trees from Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the golden model oil rig from the mayor of Kamsack, Canada, and the 5ftlong porcelain, brass and steel grasshopper wine cooler presented by ex-French President Georges Pompidou.

Special arrangements have to be made to bring home animal gifts, which have included an anteater, an armadillo, a jaguar, a sloth and an elephant. Most are donated to London Zoo.

The Queen's specially chartered flights usually take off amid tight security from RAF Northolt, north west of London.

British Airways has flown her on longhaul journeys for more than 50 years - from her flight back from Kenya in 1952 after learning of her father's death to her recent trip to open the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. A BA spokesman says: "The Queen's flights are planned meticulously, with attention paid to every detail, from selecting the menus to handpicking the crew for each flight." The Royal Travel Office at Buckingham Palace co-ordinates use of the 11 aircraft used by the Royal Family.

When the weather is too bad to fly in Britain the Queen takes the Royal Train. The distinctive maroon carriages house royal compartments, sleeping, dining and support cars.

THE Queen's Saloon has a bedroom, bathroom and sitting-room, with an entrance opening on to the platform.

But to judge by her rare show of emotion when it was decommissioned in 1997, her favourite form of transport was the Royal Yacht Britannia.

She brushed away a tear as the 412ftlong vessel was moored at Leith, Edinburgh, its final destination. After consultation with the Queen, the government decided there would be no replacement. While her children travel the globe in search of the world's best ski slopes or golf courses for holidays, her travels are almost always in the line of duty. She has made the first visits by any reigning monarch to Nepal, Ethiopia, Japan and Mozambique, and October will see the first British state visits to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The only Commonwealth country she has not yet visited is Cameroon, and she seems to have a soft spot for Canada. She has been there 28 times, far more than any other foreign destination.

But however much the Queen enjoys travelling, she is always at home for her birthday on April 21 - a rule broken only when she visited Kentucky to stay with William Farish, later US ambassador to London, three times in the 80s.

Kentucky is a bloodstock centre and multi-millionaire Farish is one of its kingpins. The Queen kept several mares at his home for breeding and enjoyed chatting about her favourite subject, horses.

And it's a racing certainty that as she reaches 80 our much-travelled monarch has plenty of air miles in her yet.